I thought this was interesting...

[lenshanem]

For the Atlanta ING in March -

Minimum Pace Required
Both the ING Georgia Marathon and the Half Marathon races start at 7:04 am. All participants must be able to finish the ING Georgia Marathon by 2:00 pm to be recorded as an official finisher (with time and place). In order to do so, Marathon participants must maintain a minimum average pace on slower than 15:15 minutes per mile. Anyone slower than the minimum pace at the split of the Marathon and Half Marathon courses (just past Mile 7) will be directed to the Half Marathon course and will be recorded as a Half Marathon finisher (with time and place). No refunds will be given for registered Marathon participants who are directed to the Half Marathon course due to pace - no exceptions.

[Duanerice]

Actually that is kind of neat. If you are having a bad day or get injured and can't quite keep the pace you can hop over to the half marathon and still finish. I like it.

enjoy,
Duane

[Hey Mickey]

That is similar to how the WDW Marathon and half-marathon used to be. It was both wonderful and awful to have to face that decision about whether to turn off into the Pluto parking lot at mile 13 or suck it up and try to make it another 13.2 miles. But if you were having a bad race and not going to make it without being swept, it was nice to be able to get that Donald medal to show for your effort!
Of course, when they had both races on the same day, there was no chance for the Goofy, so I guess I'm glad they changed it (plus, it just got way too big and unmanageable), but I sure missed having the option to take the Donald during this years marathon....